Band of the Week: Dave Hammer's Power Supply

An Evolution: The Akron-based band has been together for almost four years now and has evolved into a gritty blues/jam band as it's moved away from the prog-rock sound of its first album. "We've come into our own a lot more," says DeRubertis. "We're more comfortable writing together now. Our first record was us trying out everything we could do."

An Analog Adventure: The band essentially recorded its new album, Greasy, live (with a few guitar overdubs) on tape at Prime Time Studios in Akron to get a gritty, warm sound. The guys wrote so many tunes for the album, they left about 15 to 20 on the cutting room floor. "We had this batch for this album and we thought we were on the same page when writing these tunes," says DeRubertis. "Dave [Hammer] has developed vocally so much. When we got the raw tracks, it was the best sounding raw audio I've heard." The guys have also enlisted the locally based Gotta Groove Records to put it on 180-gram slabs of wax.

Blues Explosion: The band delved deeply into the blues for this album. "Dave has always loved blues music," says DeRubertis. "Over the last several years, he's dug into delta blues and learned that style. He'll sit in his room for three hours, cruising YouTube for old performances of songs and once one hits him over the head, he learns it. Because of that interest of his and us feeling that coming from him, [the album] ended up the way it did."

Why You Should Hear Them:Greasy's opening track, "Bunga," is a sludge-y number that could be something from Chess Records catalogue of the '50s, and the slowly escalating "I Love You" sounds a bit like the Black Keys.